White Phantom
by Daitoshi
Summary: Up late one night, Hikaru's mother goes upstairs to remind her son to go to bed. Instead, she sees the image of a ghost long gone. Sai
1. Chapter 1

11:27

The clock on the stove blinked red numbers at her, briefly illuminating the heating coils and pale surface. She sighed, standing up from her seat at the table and heading toward her bedroom.

She paused at the stairs, brushing a strand of dark hair from her face as she saw the warm light spilling under her son's door.

Soft steps took her up the stairs, hand gently grasping the cool handle. She briefly debated simply telling her son to shut the lights off, but chances were that he was asleep at this time of night.

Instead, the mother sighed gently, twisting the handle and soundlessly pushing the door open.

She waited for her eyes to adjust to the light in her son's room, before looking over at the bed.

A fond smile played about her lips as she stepped forward, lifting the blankets bunched around his ankles and slipping them up to cover his body. She tugged a lock of his blonde bangs out of the corner of his mouth, and moved back to turn off the light.

Something stayed her hand, though, as she turned to look back at him.

His face, normally so expressive and happy just a few months ago, was laden down by an expression of sadness, and longing. Even in sleep, the anguish did not leave her son's face.

She blinked, looking down at his hands.

Wondering how she did not notice it before, Hikaru's mother slipped forward, gently slipping a cheap drawing pad from her son's loosely curled fingers. She plucked the dull pencil from atop his chest, shaking her head in exasperation at the eraser shavings scattered about.

As she moved to place both on the table by his bed, a sharp gasp escaped her lips.

The pad had slipped from her grasp, loose papers scattering about his floor. She stood stock-still, moonlight casting a silvery glow about the scattered leaves, her dark eyes watching as her son groaned softly, moving one hand about where the book once lay.

She was reminded vividly of how her own arm reached out as a child, searching for her teddy.

His arm snuck over the edge of the bed, where it met one of the dropped papers.

'musta dropped it' he murmered, turning toward the wall and curling up under his blankets.

'...up tomorrow...' Hikaru drifted back to sleep, and his mother let out a quivering breath, a corner of her mind wondering why she was so hyped up about her son finding her. She beat that part back, and kneeled down to pick up the papers. Most of them were bits of homework dated back months, completed and now neatly organized in the back.

She browsed over a few landscapes, a smile flitting over her face at a sketch of herself in the morning, hands on her hips, glaring at the toaster as if that would help make it go faster. A picture she recognized as one of her son's Go friends, the the tall one with the blue-black hair...and another of the spikey brown-red haired one.

However, what really caught her gaze were the half-done portraits...

She saw bits of billowing cloth about a looming figure, long hair shaded, flowing about even darker eyes.

She couldn't help staring at one of the same half-drawn figure with a look on concentration, a paper fan covering the lowed half of its face. (she wasnt sure if it was male or female. It looked female, but the attire was traditional male clothing.)

Most of that particular figure was drawn from the perspective of someone looking over their shoulder.

All but one of the drawings had been put back into his drawing pad, the last next to his bed.

She crept forward, slipping her fingers around the paper, sliding it toward herself.

Almost unconsiously, she read the small phrase on the back, before flipping it over with greater curiosity.

What she saw made her breath catch in her chest, one hand moving to trace over the signature of her son in the corner.

The same figure from before, sitting on the other side of a go board. Old-fasioned clothes draped around his slender form, long purple hair falling from below a tall hat. One hand was resting on his lap, while the other held a fan, currently pointing at one of the intersections on the board.

Those dark eyes were playful, mischevious. A small smile played about purple-tinged lips, somehow showing joy and sadness at the same time.

In the corner, in her son's messy scrawl, was a three-letter word that made her all the more curious.

'Sai'


	2. Chapter 2

'Ne, Hikaru?'

Her son looked up from his cereal, eying her curiously.

"Who is Sai?"

One eyebrow was raised, but he shrugged, dark green eyes turned back down to his breakfast.

"He is an internet 'Go' player. Some say he is a god of the game. The only thing anyone knows about him is that no one knows who he is."

She watched her son stir his cereal with a forlorn expression, pausing to spoon a few more pieces into his mouth.

"No one knows what he looks like?"

He glanced up at her face with an inquisitive expression, shaking his head negative.

"Are you sure we are talking about the same sai here?"

He smiled, nodding again. "There is only one sai that I know about, O-kaa-san."

She hmmed to herself, before nodding absently and going back to scribbling a letter that she started earlier.

She watched Hikaru go off to school, before digging out the photo album. After seeing such a sad face again today, she really needed to see some of that happy-go-lucky sunshine that once hung around her son.

Riffling through the photographs, she stopped at a picture just after her son started to play 'Go'. He was in the middle of rolling his eyes one hand raised as if to brush something from his shoulder instead of posing for the picture.

She noticed the playful smile on his face, and smiled herself, slipping the picture out to look at it more closely. A shadow of something stood just behind him, blurred too much for her to make it out. Probably just a fluke in the film or something.

In the next few pictures, however, she grew increasingly more alarmed. In every picture, there was a pale /something/ just behind and beside her son. She noted that the blur dissipated in the more recent pictures, when his mood turned down. She glanced at a picture that Hikaru took during the pro tests, to show her what it looked like in there. When she first saw the picture, it was filled with determined people, the anticipation of an upcoming match showing clearly on their faces.

Now, however, she stared at it in horror.

The white blur dabbed nearly the entire photo!

She stared at it for a minute, wondering what on earth had happened.

Then, she looked closer.

The shape almost resembled something she recognized, with the strands flowing off the top... tall pillar... tall hat!

She stared at it again, remembering the picture Hikaru had made, that she saw in his room.

Her gaze sharpened as the picture's blur seemed to sharpen, colors bleeding into it.

She stared at it, looking to the other pictures with the blur.

All of them had changed, now featuring a certain purple-haired man with mischievous, yet serious eyes.

She breathed one word, before shuffling the pictures back into place, closing the album with a snap and depositing it back on the shelf.

'Sai'


End file.
